Bullied By Buyer-Please Help, First-Time Poster

[linneahouskeepe]

I completed an Amazon listing for a client. I even gave the client a draft before I finalized the delivery. He was good with SEO terms I used. I actually ended up doing research for him because he was using brand names in his description, which Amazon does not allow.

I did my honest best. I think part of the problem is that he doesn’t really understand Amazon listings, but he bought a course on Amazon listings and is taking every different approach and mashing them together.

“The description section is a mess,” he wrote.

I asked specifically what we wanted me to fix.

He said he hired me so he wouldn’t have to deal with specifics.

“You have to understand, when people hire a freelancer it’s so we don’t have to worry about that specific task so we can concentrate on other tasks. I want a freelancer to put the time and effort to it like their own money’s on the line.” CLIENT

I do take every job I do personally.

I have worked so hard to make it to Level 2 Seller.

“As I said I’m flexible on the due date. I can’t really have a complete listing until the photographs are complete. Here’s what I was expecting. Take 1-2 hours for when you’re free, get in the creative spirit, and approach this like it’s your listing. Make it look great. That’s most likely what’s going to earn a good tip and a stellar review from me.” CLIENT

This is a $32 (after 20%) job. I did my best. I have done Amazon listings before with success. I spent roughly three to four hours already on the job.

But, I don’t know what he wants, he won’t tell me what wants other than a complete listing, he’s been rude and condescending. I know sometimes you have to basically work for free. Some jobs are like that. I can see this guy playing “Did you guess the right formula for a listing because I will not be happy until some private expectation is met” game indefinitely.

I am so tired of being bullied. I work so hard. I realize most sellers on Fiverr work very hard also. I am not trying to be offensive.

I wrote him this morning:

“I will revise your listing to fulfill the Modified Work Request. Threatening me with a bad review is unacceptable.” ME

I have a 5-star rating. What do I do? I have 84 5-star reviews. This guy could turn around and give me a lousy review no matter what I do…

When do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line?

Help me…Thank you…

[misscrystal]

Sorry you are going through this. If it were me with this jerk I would deliver it. If he wasn’t happy with it nothing else can be done on my part.

I would send the statement he made about the review to customer support. I would keep any further conversations with him to zero. If he asked for a revision I would follow what my gig description says about how many I would do.

[linneahouskeepe]

Sorry you are going through this. If it were me with this jerk I would deliver it. If he wasn’t happy with it nothing else can be done on my part.

I would send the statement he made about the review to customer support. I would keep any further conversations with him to zero. If he asked for a revision I would follow what my gig description says about how many I would do.

Thanks. I appreciate the support! Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the review. If a seller said that–we’d get a serious warning!

[pacquo]

I completed an Amazon listing for a client. I even gave the client a draft before I finalized the delivery. He was good with SEO terms I used. I actually ended up doing research for him because he was using brand names in his description, which Amazon does not allow.

I did my honest best. I think part of the problem is that he doesn’t really understand Amazon listings, but he bought a course on Amazon listings and is taking every different approach and mashing them together.

“The description section is a mess,” he wrote.

I asked specifically what we wanted me to fix.

He said he hired me so he wouldn’t have to deal with specifics.

“You have to understand, when people hire a freelancer it’s so we don’t have to worry about that specific task so we can concentrate on other tasks. I want a freelancer to put the time and effort to it like their own money’s on the line.” CLIENT

I do take every job I do personally.

I have worked so hard to make it to Level 2 Seller.

“As I said I’m flexible on the due date. I can’t really have a complete listing until the photographs are complete. Here’s what I was expecting. Take 1-2 hours for when you’re free, get in the creative spirit, and approach this like it’s your listing. Make it look great. That’s most likely what’s going to earn a good tip and a stellar review from me.” CLIENT

This is a $32 (after 20%) job. I did my best. I have done Amazon listings before with success. I spent roughly three to four hours already on the job.

But, I don’t know what he wants, he won’t tell me what wants other than a complete listing, he’s been rude and condescending. I know sometimes you have to basically work for free. Some jobs are like that. I can see this guy playing “Did you guess the right formula for a listing because I will not be happy until some private expectation is met” game indefinitely.

I am so tired of being bullied. I work so hard. I realize most sellers on Fiverr work very hard also. I am not trying to be offensive.

I wrote him this morning:

“I will revise your listing to fulfill the Modified Work Request. Threatening me with a bad review is unacceptable.” ME

I have a 5-star rating. What do I do? I have 84 5-star reviews. This guy could turn around and give me a lousy review no matter what I do…

When do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line?

Help me…Thank you…

When do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line?

When you recognize a verbal manipulation, and this seems your case.

You can deliver another revision - not a complete rewrite - based on your own judgment; then leave to this buyer two choices:

• accept and rate
• cancel

And your relation with this buyer will stop there. Use short sentences and a polite tone.

[misscrystal]

I would also ask cs if it’s ok with them if I block him.

[eoinfinnegan]

Sorry you are going through this. If it were me with this jerk I would deliver it. If he wasn’t happy with it nothing else can be done on my part.

I would send the statement he made about the review to customer support. I would keep any further conversations with him to zero. If he asked for a revision I would follow what my gig description says about how many I would do.

If it were me with this jerk I would deliver it. If he wasn’t happy with it nothing else can be done on my part.

I would send the statement he made about the review to customer support. I would keep any further conversations with him to zero. If he asked for a revision I would follow what my gig description says about how many I would do.

I would do the same as this.

Also, don’t fret about negative reviews. They happen now and then. If you know you have done the work required and they still arent happy (and not working with you to revise) then just take the negative review. It will soon be lost in positive reviews. There are clients like this that every business has to deal with; some of the best restaurants and hotels in the world have 1* reviews from some people.

Be glad that most are not like this and just move on and forget about it when you get the short straw of getting an order from one.

[humanissocial]

If it were me with this jerk I would deliver it. If he wasn’t happy with it nothing else can be done on my part.

I would send the statement he made about the review to customer support. I would keep any further conversations with him to zero. If he asked for a revision I would follow what my gig description says about how many I would do.

I would do the same as this.

Also, don’t fret about negative reviews. They happen now and then. If you know you have done the work required and they still arent happy (and not working with you to revise) then just take the negative review. It will soon be lost in positive reviews. There are clients like this that every business has to deal with; some of the best restaurants and hotels in the world have 1* reviews from some people.

Be glad that most are not like this and just move on and forget about it when you get the short straw of getting an order from one.

I love this. Well said and so empowering.

We can all recover from bad reviews! The prospect of a bad review is no reason to let someone abuse and exploit you. Once you allow tha, you are powerless and will remain stuck getting terrible buyers.

[eoinfinnegan]

I love this. Well said and so empowering.

We can all recover from bad reviews! The prospect of a bad review is no reason to let someone abuse and exploit you. Once you allow tha, you are powerless and will remain stuck getting terrible buyers.

Yeah, I did panic the first time but have had a few and just decided that I like getting paid more than I like a perfect rating, especially when it comes to getting paid from people attempting to scam. I also feel having a few negatives puts off the “cancel or I give a bad review” brigade.

Finally, I have never noticed any real effect from any negatives I got and no client has ever mentioned them.

[humanissocial]

Yeah, I did panic the first time but have had a few and just decided that I like getting paid more than I like a perfect rating, especially when it comes to getting paid from people attempting to scam. I also feel having a few negatives puts off the “cancel or I give a bad review” brigade.

Finally, I have never noticed any real effect from any negatives I got and no client has ever mentioned them.

Such a great point. Buyers can see that the blemishes of the odd bad review don’t bring you down!

I think also people are pretty savvy and take reviews with a grain of salt. They know bias can influence them.

[linneahouskeepe]

Thank you all for your sage advice.

It ended up all being a miscommunication. The buyer is not a Native English speaker. He had sent me a document with specific changes that I didn’t see. Was it my fault? I made a mistake?

I still think the buyer is a jerk. You don’t have to talk to anyone that way. But I took your advice–I revised it according to the buyer’s suggestions and now I am done. I used short, polite sentences in the Delivery. Usually, I would give another revision–but not for this guy.

Again, thank you everyone.

Working on Fiverr–I so appreciate the work and money, but I sometimes feel like I am Fiverr’s…b—h, because I am so beholden to the buyer who is always right–no matter what.

I had to cancel an order this week because the buyer bought my basic package–$20 for 500 words. This is what was in the requirements:

"Hi!

We use ZenDesk to publish articles on a weekly basis. We will write most of the article for you, and we only need you to edit the articles for grammar errors etc.

Once in a while I will hire you to write a series of articles that are generic but related to the work that we do. Our agents will ping you with the article that needs editing and we would like a 24hr turn around time. Again, they’ll be mostly finished by the time you get them minus those erros.

Youll get access to ZenDesk so that you can edit the articles directly from there"

There were no documents and the clock was ticking. I offered to edit 500 words, but the buyer was non responsive. I had no communication with this buyer before he placed an order. I thought for sure CS would side with me and not let the cancellation count against my completion rate–especially! since the buyer asked me out right to work with them privately outside of Fiverr.

Fiverr told me that it was still my fault.

I just feel so…expendable.

Again, thank you for everyone’s advice!